woodcarver, sculptor, ship's carver and bowyer

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Tiller to Brest

The Brest International Maritime Festival, 2016, is one of the biggest in the world (https://www.brest2016.fr/en) and they have invited craftsmen from all over the world to demonstrate in the international craft village, including a contingent from the UK. Unfortunately I can’t go due to work commitments but the team have agreed to take some of my work to display in the British Craft Village.

The schedule is a little tight, at six weeks, but I am going to try and carve an elaborate tiller, about 48 inches long covered all over with decorative knot-work and with a lion-headed handle I carved a few years ago – about time it was mounted on something. Current estimate for the work is about 200 hours, plus the time already spent on the lion-head!

So, here is the tiller roughed out from a hawthorn log, you can see the other half of the log beneath it to show how the curve is natural not steam-bent. Time taken at this point was about 4 hours working with a hatchet, hand-planes and Shinto rasp – no power tools in this project!